It was hard for me when I first came to Germany to understand that the word "cowboy" is a term of opprobrium here. Why do liberals hate the automobile? For the same reason they hate the image of the cowboy who mounts his pony and rides into the sunset utterly free and unregulated across the open range. How much better to deprive these cowboys of their guns and their spurs and make them take public transportation.
Fellow Freepers,
You ought to check out
http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1194940734/6 to see the battle my father and his neighbors are facing in SE Colorado with the US Military Complex.
Here is the skinny. The US army “thinks” they need an additional 418,000 acres of private land to enlarge their training base to support Ft. Carson. Not to mention that they took over 200,000 acres back in the 1980’s, now they say they need more. Never mind that the Military complex already has 25 million acres but has clearly said that they will need an additional 5 million acres by 2011.
Our patriotism has been questioned by the city leaders in Colorado Springs business community who stands to totally benefit from the enlargement of Ft. Carson. We support our troops but who is supposed to supporting who?
How come ALL federal land is off the table when our military thinks they need more training area? Their solution is to simply invoke imminent domain on private property. We are hard working US citizens who have faithfully paid our taxes and have minded our own business for generations.
This is just one example of how the ranching life is slowly being eroded away. For further reading, check out http://www.pinoncanyon.com/
My two cents,
MFO